Anyone else find cleaning overwhelming?

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Thank you. I have been trying to explain this and had no way of describing it. Cleaning is overwhelming because I don't know where to start. There's a lot of anxiety that comes with it too though. I grew up in a household that was very abusive. And when I did chores, there was never a thank you, it was never good enough. I also had to clean a 2 story home in a day according to this parental figure of mine too.

So with all of that on top of the overwhelming feeling, my strategy to cleaning really is a mess that gets too much for me to bare, then I finally do it because it's irritating the piss out of me.

I use a different sort of "one small thing at a time" strategy for cleaning, and it does work for me but only in conjunction with the development of cleaning habits/routines. So, for example:

Say I'm in the situation where my dishes normally all live in the sink and on the counters rather than in the cupboards and I wash them before I use them instead of after I use them -- because their default state is dirty rather than clean....and I decide I want to change this.

On the first day, my goal is to wash all the dishes I use that day both before and after I use them. (Either immediately after using them or at a specific time at the end of the day....without a specific time, I either completely forget to wash them, or it gets so late that I need to go to bed and I'm too tired to motivate myself to wash them).

On subsequent days, my goal is the same except that I wash at least one more dish than I use. That one dish could be a spoon or some obscure kitchen tool that I use maybe once a year and happened to use last month -- it doesn't matter how big it is or how often I use it, only that it's in addition to the dishes I used that day.

Slowly but surely, all the dishes get washed and put back in the cupboard this way, until the counters and sink are clear the dishes are usually living in the cupboards in a default state of clean.

I can see the whole we're to start. I ussually start with the thing that is most overwhelming at the time.

I do

I don't mind cleaning if I am allowed to clean my way. I live with a bipolar father and a very organized teacher mother. As a result, they have certain standards of cleaning that I never can seem to get right no matter how hard I try. (Side effect of me being on the spectrum I wonder?) But also, I forget to do things like dusting and we have a whole bunch of wood furniture in my house and no matter how much Pledge I use... there's still always some left... which is just frustrating. As such, I do not like cleaning anywhere in my house, except my room. However, I get frustrated with that as it's only a 90 square foot space... which with a bed, dresser, and desk, there's not much room left to organize/ I run out of space quickly, so I often give up. Plus, as I share a bathroom with my brother and he tends to mess it up about two hours after I clean it, I get really annoyed and just stop caring in order to preserve my sanity.
basically how I feel about it.

As for cleaning other places, I like it as it makes me feel calm and relaxed. Plus, if I can listen to my music while I do so, it tends to make me a little bit happier and makes it a lot more fun cause I can dance around.

I HATE cleaning

It used to bother me, but I figured out long before I knew about Autism that "big" projects made me feel overwhelmed. I adapted by deliberately focusing on smaller "subsections" of the project that were easier to deal with.

Cleaning might seem hard to break down, but you can focus (like some homemakers do) on doing one room at a time. Or you can do one type of chore for the whole house and stop when that's done (unless you have the energy to do more).

Reduce a big task into smaller, more manageable tasks, and you won't feel so stressed. How small they need to be depends on how easily you feel overwhelmed.

This can be counterintuitive because I had a similar problem with building models. I'd try to do everything in one sitting. The first (and only) model I made that honestly looks good, I had to FORCE myself to stop after certain steps so the glue had time to cure, paint had time to dry, etc. before I tackled the next step. Those pauses in "production" were essential for the model to turn out good.

I do, and it's my job.
....I don't have trouble cleaning at work, but at home there's no externally set routine, procedures and colour-coded gear to get me through the laziness, grossed-out-ness and feelings of confusion.

I love cleaning. I can't stand messes and if you keep things picked up and cleaned, it won't get bigger to a point you won't know where to start. Today I swept the bathroom floor and washed it, I cleaned my car by vacuuming it out and wiping all the surfaces in it, I also washed my daughter's car seat, did the dishes this morning, started a load in the washing machine. I am doing all this because we are going on a tip for a week starting this weekend so I want to get the place cleaned up for my in laws and I do little at a time so it's not all in one day and I am overwhelmed.